Course Management Systems - Essay Example

They can also assist instructors with furthering their Internet class options through the use of features like discussions, Emails, and quizzes (Cole and Foster, 2007). A teacher can also store a syllabus, lecture notes, and other information on a server, if desired. Another beneficial feature is the use of the open forum discussion, which allows for asynchronous classroom participation; thus, this makes it much easier for both professors and students to find the time to interact (Cole and Foster, 2007).

Synchronous tools include the chat feature, which some instructors like to use to setup office hours with their students, or question and answer sessions via an appointment (Cole and Foster, 2007). Assignments in Moodle are particularly easy to grade, as the CMS uses a dropbox feature for written assignments, and this information, when graded, goes right into the gradebook, and can be privately viewed by the student, thus keeping the school in line with FERPA guidelines (Moodle Docs, n.d.) Moodle has an extreme advantage over some other online platforms because it is relatively inexpensive.

For instance, one can actually sign up for a free trial, meaning that Moodle is an open source (Cole and Foster, 2007). . Since online technology is becoming more and more important in education as online education becomes increasingly popular, Moodle allows individuals to be able to do several things in an online or traditional course via the Internet that were not possible less than a decade before. Educators throughout the country are still debating about how to combine technology for both online teaching, face-to-face meetings, and classes that use both online and face-to-face meetings, designated as hybrid courses.

Hybrid courses generally utilize both solid aspects of face-to-face learning with the Internet software available to give students a credible learning experience overall, especially if the students still require some face to face interaction. Furthermore, Moodle is a very effective tool as far as Social Constructionist theory is concerned. Social Constructivism states that an individual or group will learn best when he or she or they are experiencing a social process of constructing ideas through the act of constructing an artifact for others (Cole and Foster, 2007).

Therefore, in order to effectively learn, one most place oneself in the process of negotiating meaning in a culture of shared artifacts and symbols. The use of Moodle software effectively offers this, because it allows for the individual to be able to learn in a variety of ways; through chats, through discussions, via Email and assignments, through feedback from the instructor, through interaction with peers, and, if a traditional or hybrid course, through face to face learning (Cole and Foster, 2007).

Another reason to consider Moodle is the fact that it holds up